Stephanie over at Adventures in Babywearing hosts this week’s Photo Tag and this week we’re talking about purses…diaper bags, etc.
Well, I’m out of the diaper bag stage and I’m not real fashion conscious, however, my purse tells a story….
If you are fashion conscious, you know that about 4 years ago (yes, I said FOUR) initial bags were “in”… I don’t know if they are now or not, because I don’t see anyone carry them anymore… but four years ago they were everywhere…
Now, I wanted one. Don’t know why… could’ve been the very fashionable Alexis that I worked with and how she told me that I HAD to have one…
Could’ve been because that was about as fashionable as I will ever be in my life (I’m over it now since we both moved away from Richmond…)
I don’t know why I wanted one, but I wanted one…
We searched HIGH and LOW for an “H” bag… It got to the point that I didn’t care WHAT color the stupid thing was…
I had people searching in Florida, Pennsylvania, and various cities in Virginia, among other places. We were looking everywhere to no avail…
Oh? You want to know about eBay?
Yeah… they were on eBay… but apparently “H” was an initial not bought by the buyers because there are few names with an “H” so they were considered rare… so on eBay, the cheapest I could find one was $50 and it wasn’t one that I wanted…
::sigh::
Heidi
Heather
Hillary
Hilda
Hester
Holly
are there other H names? There must be…
anywho…
Back to this purse…
My kids knew how badly I wanted this purse. When we went to sit on Santa’s lap, Matthew leaned over to Santa and said, “Santa, all mom really wants is an “H” purse. We’ve looked everywhere and we just can’t find one.”
And we couldn’t. It became instinct when we would walk in a store…the kids headed directly to the purses and we rooted through all of them looking for that “H”… to no avail.
I’ve never spent more than $20 on a purse. I’m frugal, not fashionable, etc… Mom pulled me aside one day and said, “Here’s $25 toward your purse when you find one on eBay. Just don’t tell your father.”
I bid and lost and bid and lost on tons of “H” bags on eBay all the while still searching in the stores.
Finally, I won one! With mom’s generous donation, I ended up spending $60 on this purse… more than I have ever, or will ever, spend on a purse.
But I WANTED it.
The purse came just a few weeks before Christmas. It was the first year that Matthew began doubting the existance of Santa…Mom asked…
“well, now that you have it what are you going to do with it?”
I simply replied, “Wrap it up and put it under the tree.”
And that’s what I did!
Christmas morning, I unwrapped my “H” purse… I pretended that I just couldn’t believe that “Santa” had brought it for me, but it helped Matthew believe for another year… “Oh, Mommy, I KNOW there is a Santa… we looked everywhere for that and couldn’t find it.”
Even my dad was a bit stupefied… “Where did that come from?” he asked.
I just told him, “Santa”… telling my father that I spent $60 on a purse was not what I wanted to do…
However, when I bought that purse, I told my mother that I would be buried with it because I spent so much on it. I still carry it to this day.
Occasionally, I swap out with another purse that I’ve picked up on clearance somewhere, but for the most part, this is the bag that I carry….
and no, most of the time, I don’t care that my bag doesn’t match my shoes…
is that still the way it’s done?
Until next time…
Heather
Oh, what a great story!!! And too funny- my mom wanted one of those purses so bad and she couldn’t find one with ‘R’ for Rhonda (her name) so she bought one with ‘M’ instead for “Mimi”- what my kids call her!!!
Steph
LOL! I, too, am not fashion concious and don’t care weather my purse and shoes match what I’m wearing. I usually have a black purse at winter and a spring looking purse for the summer. I keep so much junk in my purse, that I don’t like switching. Loved your story!
That’s a GREAT story! And it’s black, so it goes with everything.
Signed, The Pathetic Purse Matcher. 
That’s a great story! (and a nice purse!)
Doesn’t it feel great when you finally get the thing you’ve been hunting for?! Cute Story!
Hmmm, I could complain that my purse (the ONLY one I own) is falling apart…
But I just read your post about not complaining and I think I better not.
Just wondering, what kind of purse matches dirty tennis shoes?
Great story! I missed out on the initial bags, too. Maybe now I can find one cheap on ebay. Yours is really cute!
I completely understand being attached to that purse, and it looks like it’s held up well!
I like your H bag.
I’m right there with you, if I would have spent that much on a purse I’d still be carrying it years later too! My husband would probably make me live in it!
Ok I have to add my Initial purse story too. I also HAD to have one way back when but for whatever reason I coudln’t find one that had the letter T on it so I ended up going with one that had an L on it (my last name starts with an L….lol) and it wasn’t even a cute black one like yours – it was a gaudy icky two toned one. Needless to say I donated it to my local Goodwill about 3-4 weeks after buying it. I however only spent about $15.00 on it at Wal-Mart. Too funny!!!!! Talk about a ‘blast from the past’ – I had completely forgotten about the ‘initial’ purse craze.
Great story!
)
My dd has a cute inital purse and loves it. She’s six so I doubt she cares if it’s in style or not! LOL
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